The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 2

235

Sherring, Hindu Tribes and Castes, i. p. 330. Nesfield, Brief View, p. 15. N.W.P. Census Report (1891), p 317.

236

The name of a superior revenue office; under the Marāthas, now borne as a courtesy title by certain families.

237

Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Agarwāl.

238

Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Bārui.

239

Blochmann, Ain-i-Akbari, i. p. 72, quoted in Crooke’s Tribes and Castes, art. Tamboli.

240

Rājasthān, ii. p. 210.

241

Ficus glomerata.

242

Hindu Castes, i. p. 316.

243

Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Bāri.

244

Vishnu.

245

Sherring, Tribes and Castes, i. pp. 403, 404.

246

This article is compiled from papers by Mr. W. N. Maw, Deputy Commissioner, Damoh, and Murlīdhar, Munsiff of Khurai in Saugor.

247

Bombay Gazetteer, xvii. p. 108.

248

About 100 lbs.

249

Compiled from papers by Mr. Rām Lāl, B. A., Deputy Inspector of Schools, Saugor; Mr. Vishnu Gangādhar Gādgil, Tahsīldār, Narsinghpur; Mr. Devi Dayal, Tahsīldār, Hatta; Mr. Kanhya Lāl, B. A., Deputy Inspector of Schools, Betūl; Mr. Keshava Rao, Headmaster, Middle School, Seoni; and Bapu Gulāb Singh, Superintendent, Land Records, Betūl.

250

Chapter x. 37, and Shūdra Kamlākar, p. 284.

251

A Vaideha was the child of a Vaishya father and a Brāhman mother.

252

Based on a paper by Rao Sahib Dhonduji, retired Inspector of Police, Akola, and information collected by Mr. Adurām Chaudhri of the Gazetteer office.

253

Mr. Marten’s C. P. Census Report (1911), p. 212.

254

This article is based on papers by Mr. A. K. Smith, C.S., Mr. Khande Rāo, Superintendent of Land Records, Raipur, and Munshi Kanhiya Lāl, of the Gazetteer office.

255

Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Beldār.

256

The Castes and Tribes of Southern India, art. Odde.

257

Akola District Gazetteer (Mr. C. Brown), pp. 132, 133.

258

Amraoti District Gazetteer (Messrs. Nelson and Fitzgerald), p. 146.

259

See article on Badhak.

260

Kennedy, p. 247.

261

Crooke, art. Beria.

262

The following particulars are taken from a note by Mr. K. N. Dāte, Deputy Superintendent, Reformatory School, Jubbulpore.

263

This article is based principally on a paper by Panna Lāl, Revenue Inspector, Bilāspur, and also on papers by Mr. Syed Sher Ali, Nāib-Tahsīldār, Mr. Hira Lāl and Mr. Adurām Chaudhri of the Gazetteer office.

264

For the meaning of the term Baiga and its application to the tribe, see also article on Bhuiya.

265

It is or was, of course, a common practice for a husband to cut off his wife’s nose if he suspected her of being unfaithful to him. But whether the application of the epithet to the goddess should be taken to imply anything against her moral character is not known.

266

This article is mainly compiled from a paper by Pyāre Lāl Misra, Ethnographic Clerk.

267

Bombay Gazetteer (Campbell), xviii. p. 464.

268

The following particulars are taken from Colonel Portman’s Report on the Bhāmtas of the Deccan (Bombay, 1887).

269

Portman, loc. cit.

270

Bombay Gazetteer (Campbell), xviii. p. 465.

271

This article contains some information from a paper by Mr. Gopal Parmanand, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Saugor.

272

Memoirs of the Races of the N.W.P. vol. i. p. 35.

273

Tribes and Castes, art. Bharbhūnja.

274

See article on Kurmi. The remainder of this section is taken from Mr. Gopal Parmanand’s notes.

275

Ibidem.

276

Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Kāndu.

277

This article is compiled from notes taken by Mr. Hira Lāl, Assistant Gazetteer Superintendent in Jubbulpore, and from a paper by Rām Lāl Sharma, schoolmaster, Bilāspur.

278

Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P., art. Bhar.

279

C.P. Census Report, 1881, p. 188.

280

Dhayā means the system of shifting cultivation, which until prohibited was so injurious to the forests.

281

Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Brāhman.

282

Art. Bhāt.

283

Malcolm, Central India, ii. p. 132.

284

Rājasthān, ii. p. 406.

285

Malcolm, ii. p. 135.

286

Rājasthān, ii. pp. 133, 134.

287

Great King, the ordinary method of address to Brāhmans.

288

Rājasthān, ii. p. 175.

289

Rāsmāla, ii. pp. 261, 262.

290

See later in this article.

291

This present of a lakh of rupees is known as Lākh Pasāru, and it is not usually given in cash but in kind. It is made up of grain, land, carriages, jewellery, horses, camels and elephants, and varies in value from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 70,000. A living bard, Mahamahopadhyaya Murar Dās, has received three Lākh Pasārus from the Rājas of Jodhpur and has refused one from the Rāna of Udaipur in view of the fact that he was made ayachaka by the Jodhpur Rāja. Ayachaka means literally ‘not a beggar,’ and when a bard has once been made ayachaka he cannot accept gifts from any person other than his own patron. An ayachaka was formerly known as polpat, as it became his bounden duty to sing the praises of his patron constantly from the gate (pol) of the donor’s fort or castle. (Mr. Hīra Lāl.)

292

Rājasthān, ii. p. 548.

293

Viserva, lit. poison.

294

From dhol, a drum.

295

Rājasthān, ii. p. 184.

296

Lit. putli or doll.

297

Tribes and Castes, art. Bhāt.

298

Ibidem. Veiling the face is a sign of modesty.

299

Postans. Cutch, p. 172.

300

Vol. ii. pp. 392–394.

301

Rāsmāla, ii. pp. 143, 144.

302

Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarāt, Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparām, pp. 217, 219.

303

In Broach.

304

Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, ii. p. 242.

305

Westermarck, ibidem, p. 246.

306

Westermarck, ibidem, p. 248.

307

The above account of Dharna is taken from Colonel Tone’s Letter on the Marāthas (India Office Tracts).

308

This article is compiled from papers drawn up by Rai Bahādur Panda Baijnāth, Superintendent, Bastar State; Mr. Ravi Shankar, Settlement Officer, Bastar; and Mr. Gopāl Krishna, Assistant Superintendent, Bastar.

309

Bassia latifolia.

310

The principal authorities on the Bhīls are: An Account of the Mewār Bhīls, by Major P. H. Hendley, J.A.S.B. vol. xliv., 1875, pp. 347–385; the Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix., Hindus of Gujarāt; and notices in Colonel Tod’s Rājasthān, Mr. A. L. Forbes’s Rāsmāla, and The Khāndesh Bhīl Corps, by Mr. A. H. A. Simcox, C.S.

311

The old name of the Sesodia clan, Gahlot, is held to be derived from this Goha. See the article Rājpūt Sesodia for a notice of the real origin of the clan.

312

Rājasthān, i. p. 184.

313

Ibidem, p. 186.

314

Reference may be made to The Golden Bough for the full explanation and illustration of this superstition.

315

Rājasthān, ii. pp. 320, 321.

316

History of the Marāthas, i. p. 28.

317

See article.

318

Rājasthān, ii. p. 466.

319

Malcolm, Memoir of Central India, i. p. 518.

320

An Account of the Bhīls, J.A.S.B. (1875), p. 369.

321

Hyderābād Census Report (1891), p. 218.

322

The Khāndesh Bhīl Corps, by Mr A. H. A. Simcox.

323

Forbes, Rāsmāla, i. p. 104.

324

Memoir of Central India, i. pp. 525, 526.

325

Ibidem, i. p. 550.

326

Hobson-Jobson, art. Bhīl.

327

An Account of the Bhīls, p. 369.

328

The Khāndesh Bhīl Corps, p. 71.

329

Ibidem, p. 275.

330

Eugenia jambolana.

331

Soymida febrifuga.

332

Phyllanthus emblica.

333

Terminalia belerica.

334

Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarāt, p. 309.

335

See article Kunbi.

336

Sorghum vulgare.

337

Loc. cit. p. 347.

338

Western India.

339

Asiatic Studies, 1st series, p. 174.

340

Asiatic Studies, 1st series, p. 352.

341

Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarāt, p. 302.

342

Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xii. p. 87.

343

An Account of the Bhīls, pp. 362, 363.

344

Account of the Mewār Bhīls, pp. 357, 358.

345

Forbes, Rāsmāla, i. p. 113.

346

Nimār Settlement Report, pp. 246, 247.

347

Sir G. Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India, vol. ix. part iii. pp. 6–9.

348

This article is based mainly on Captain Forsyth’s Nimār Settlement Report, and a paper by Mr. T. T. Korke, Pleader, Khandwa.

349

Eugenia jambolana.

350

Bauhinia racemosa.

351

Settlement Report (1869), para. 411.

352

Mr. Montgomerie’s Nimār Settlement Report.

353

Memoir of Central India, ii. p. 156.

354

Crooke’s Tribes and Castes, art. Bhishti.

355

Elliott’s Memoirs of the North-Western Provinces, i. p. 191.

356

Crooke’s Tribes and Castes, ii. p. 100.

357

Rudyard Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘Gunga Din.’

358

Thacker and Co., London.

359

This article is mainly compiled from papers by Mr. Pāndurang Lakshman Bākre, pleader, Betūl, and Munshi Pyāre Lāl, ethnographic clerk.

360

This article is compiled partly from Colonel Dalton’s Ethnology of Bengal and Sir H. Risley’s Tribes and Castes of Bengal; a monograph has also been furnished by Mr. B. C. Mazumdār, pleader, Sambalpur, and papers by Mr. A. B. Napier, Deputy Commissioner, Raipur, and Mr. Hīra Lāl.

361

Ethnology of Bengal, p. 140.

362

Linguistic Survey, vol. xiv. Munda and Dravidian Languages, p. 217.

363

Page 142.

364

Ibidem, p. 141.

365

In the article on Binjhwār, it was supposed that the Baigas migrated east from the Satpūra hills into Chhattīsgarh. But the evidence adduced above appears to show that this view is incorrect.

366

Tribes and Castes, art. Binjhia.

367

Crooke, Tribes and Castes, art. Bhuiya, para. 4.

368

Ibidem, para. 3.

369

Ibidem, art. Bhuiyār, para. 1.

370

Ibidem, para. 16.

371

Dalton, p. 147.

372

Page 142.

373

The question of the relation of the Baiga tribe to Mr. Crooke’s Bhuiyārs was first raised by Mr. E. A. H. Blunt, Census Superintendent, United Provinces.

374

Mr. Mazumdār’s monograph.

375

From Mr. Mazumdār’s monograph.

376

This article is compiled from a paper taken by Mr. Hīra Lāl at Sonpur.

377

This article is based on papers by Mr. Hīra Lāl, Mr. Gokul Prasād, Tahsīldār, Dhamtarī, Mr. Pyāre Lāl Misra of the Gazetteer office, and Munshi Ganpati Giri, Superintendent, Bindrānawāgarh estate.

378

From the Index of Languages and Dialects, furnished by Sir G. Grierson for the census.

379

Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Binjhia.

380

Early History of Mankind, p. 341.

381

This article is based on a paper by Mr. Miān Bhai Abdul Hussain, Extra Assistant Commissioner, Sambalpur.

382

Bassia latifolia.

383

This article is compiled from Mr. Wilson’s account of the Bishnois as reproduced in Mr. Crooke’s Tribes and Castes, and from notes taken by Mr. Adurām Chaudhri in the Hoshangābād District.

384

The total number of precepts as given above is only twenty-five, but can be raised to twenty-nine by counting the prohibition of opium, tobacco, bhāng, blue clothing, spirits and flesh separately.

385

Jhuria may be Jharia, jungly; Sain is a term applied to beggars; the Ahīr or herdsman sept may be descended from a man of this caste who became a Bishnoi.

386

The day when the sun passes from one zodiacal sign into another.

387

The New Moon day or the day before.

388

This article is largely based on Mr. F. L. Farīdi’s full description of the sect in the Bombay Gazetteer, Muhammadans of Gujarāt, and on a paper by Mr. Habib Ullah, pleader, Burhānpur.

389

Bombay Gazetteer, Muhammadans of Gujarāt, p. 30. Sir H. T. Colebrooke and Mr. Conolly thought that the Bohras were true Shias and not Ismailias.

390

Ibidem, pp. 30–32.

391

J.A.S.B. vol. vi. (1837), part ii. p. 847.

392

Berar Census Report (1818), p. 70.

393

Castes and Tribes of Southern India, art. Bohra.

394

Crooke’s edition of Hobson-Jobson, art. Bohra.

395

Moor’s Hindu Infanticide, p. 168.

396

Memoir of Central India, ii. p. 111.

397

This article is mainly compiled from a full and excellent account of the caste by Mr. Gopal Datta Joshi, Civil Judge, Saugor, C.P., to whom the writer is much indebted. Extracts have also been taken from Mr. W. Crooke’s and Sir H. Risley’s articles on the caste in their works on the Tribes and Castes of the United Provinces and Bengal respectively; from Mr. J. N. Bhattachārya’s Hindu Castes and Sects (Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta, 1896), and from the Rev. W. Ward’s View of the History, Literature and Religion of the Hindus (London, 1817).

398

Crooke’s Tribes and Castes, art. Brāhman, quoting Professor Eggeling in Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. Brāhmanism.

399

Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Brāhman.

400

Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies, 3rd ed. p. 172.

401

Muir, Ancient Sanskrit Texts, i. 282 sq.

402

Quoted in Mr. Crooke’s Tribes and Castes, art. Brāhman.

403

Quoted by Mr. Crooke.

404

Tribes and Castes of the Punjāb, by Mr. H. A. Rose, vol. ii. p. 123.

405

See also article Rājpūt-Gaur.

406

See subordinate articles.

407

A section of the Kanaujia. See above.

408

Tribes and Castes, art. Brāhman.

409

Chap. ix. v. 173.

410

Ward’s Hindus, vol. ii. p. 97.

411

Ibidem, pp. 98, 100.

412

Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, by the Abbé Dubois, 3rd ed. p. 499.

413

Ibidem, p. 500.

414

London, Heinemann (1897), pp. 84–91.

415

This is the famous Gayatri.

416

It is not known how a slip-knot and a garland are connected with any incarnation of Vishnu. For the incarnations see articles Vaishnava sect.

417

In the Central Provinces Ganpati is represented by a round red stone, Surya by a rock crystal or the Swastik sign, Devi by an image in brass or by a stone brought from her famous temple at Mahur, and Vishnu by the round black stone or Sāligrām. Besides these every Brāhman will have a special family god, who may be one of the above or another deity, as Rāma or Krishna.

418

Bipracharanamrita.

419

Hindu Castes and Sects, pp. 19–21.

420

Rājasthān, i. p. 487.

421

Rājasthān, i. p. 698.

422

At that time £12,500 or more, now about £8000.

423

Tribes and Castes of the North-West Provinces and Oudh, s.v.

424

Early History of India, 3rd ed. p. 376.

425

Ibidem, p. 385.

426

Tribes and Castes, art. Kanaujia.

427

Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat, p. 11.

428

Bombay Gazetteer, Satāra, p. 54.

429

Bhattachārya, Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 47.

430

Ibidem, p. 48.

431

From Mr. Gopal Datta Joshi’s paper.

432

Rāsmāla, ii. p. 233.

433

Rāsmāla, ii. p. 259.

434

Tribes and Castes, art. Sanādhya.

435

Crooke, ibidem, paras. 3 and 6.

436

Eastern India, ii. 472, quoted in Mr. Crooke’s art. Sarwaria.

437

Stirling’s description of Orissa in As. Res. vol. xv. p. 199, quoted in Hindu Castes and Sects.

438

Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 63.

439

This article is compiled from papers by Mr. Wali Muhammad, Tahsīldār of Khurai, and Kanhya Lāl, clerk in the Gazetteer office.

440

This article is based on the Rev. E. M. Gordon’s Indian Folk-Tales (London, Elliott & Stock, 1908), and the Central Provinces Monograph on the Leather Industry, by Mr. C. G. Chenevix Trench, C.S.; with extracts from Sir H. H. Risley’s and Mr. Crooke’s descriptions of the caste, and from the Berār Census Report (1881); on information collected for the District Gazetteers; and papers by Messrs. Durga Prasād Pānde, Tahsīldār, Raipur; Rām Lāl, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Saugor; Govind Vithal Kāne, Naib-Tahsīldār, Wardha; Bālkrishna Rāmchandra Bakhle, Tahsīldār, Mandla; Sitārām, schoolmaster, Bālāghāt; and Kanhya Lāl of the Gazetteer office. Some of the material found in Mr. Gordon’s book was obtained independently by the writer in Bilāspur before its publication and is therefore not specially acknowledged.

441

There are other genealogies showing the Chamār as the offspring of various mixed unions.

442

Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xv. Kanara, p. 355.

443

The Hindus say that there are five classes of women, Padmini, Hastini, Chitrani and Shunkhini being the first four, and of these Padmini is the most perfect. No details of the other classes are given. Rāsmāla, i. p. 160.

444

Punjab Census Report (1881), p. 320.

445

Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Chamār.

446

Loc. cit.

447

From Mr. Gordon’s paper.

448

Monograph on Leather Industries, p. 9.

449

Ibidem.

450

See articles on these castes.

451

Monograph on Leather Industries, p. 3.

452

Berār Census Report (1881), p. 149.

453

From māngna, to beg.

454

Tribes and Castes, art. Chamār.

455

Indian Folk-Tales.

456

Indian Folk-Tales, pp. 49, 50.

457

Shells which were formerly used as money.

458

Indian Folk-Tales, pp. 49, 50.

459

Monograph, p. 3.

460

Monograph on Leather Industries, p. 5.

461

Zizyphus xylopera.

462

Butea frondosa.

463

Anogeissus latifolia.

464

The above is an abridgment of the description in Mr. Trench’s Monograph, to which reference may be made for further details.

465

Monograph on the Leather Industries, pp. 10, 11.

466

Melia indica.

467

Berār Census Report (1881), p. 149.